The Internet is a global network of computers and computer networks (the “Net”). The Internet connects computers that use a variety of different operating systems or languages, including UNIX, DOS, Windows, Macintosh, and others. To enable communication among these various systems and languages, the Internet uses a language referred to as TCP/IP (“Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol”). TCP/IP protocol supports three basic applications on the Internet: transmitting and receiving electronic mail, logging into remote computers (the “Telnet”), and transferring files and programs from one computer to another (“FTP” or “File Transfer Protocol”).
With the increasing size and complexity of the Internet, tools have been developed to help find information on the network. These tools are often called navigators or navigation systems. Navigation systems that have been developed include standards such as Archie, Gopher and WAIS. The World Wide Web (“WWW” or “the Web”) is a recent and superior navigation system. The Web is: an Internet-based navigation system, an information distribution and management system for the Internet, and a dynamic format for communicating on the Web.
The Web seamlessly integrates various kinds of information, including still images, text, audio and video. A Web user with a graphical user interface (“GUI”, pronounced “gooey”) may transparently communicate with different host computers on the system, different system applications (including FTP and Telnet), and different information formats for files and documents including, for example, text, sound and graphics.
The Web uses hypertext and hypermedia. Hypertext is a subset of hypermedia and refers to computer-based “documents” in which readers move from one place to another within a document, or from one document to another, in a non-linear manner. To do this, the Web uses a client-server architecture. The Web servers enable the user to access hypertext and hypermedia information through the Web and the user's computer. (The user's computer is referred to as a client computer of the Web Server computers.) The clients send requests to the Web Servers, which react, search and respond. The Web allows client application software to request and receive hypermedia documents (including formatted text, audio, video and graphics) with hypertext link capabilities to other hypermedia documents, from a Web file server.
The Web, then, can be viewed as a collection of document files residing on Web host computers that are interconnected by hyperlinks using networking protocols, forming a virtual “web” that spans the Internet. A resource of the Internet is unambiguously identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), which is a pointer to a particular resource at a particular location. A URL specifies the protocol used to access a server (e.g. HTTP, FTP, and so forth), the domain name of the server, the port address to be used for communication, and the location of a file on that server. Thus, when a user selects a hyperlink, the system uses the URL to establish communication with a server computer designated in the URL and displays a document or content retrieved from the server.
Each Web page may appear as a complex document that integrates, for example, text, images, sounds and animation. Each such page may also comprise hyperlinks to other Web documents so that a user at a client computer may click on icons with a mouse and thereby activate hyperlink jumps to a new page on the same or a different Web server.
A Web server is a software program on a Web host computer that answers requests from Web clients, typically over the Internet. All Web servers use a language or protocol to communicate with Web clients called Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”). All types of data can be exchanged among Web servers and clients using this protocol, including Hyper Text Markup Language (“HTML”), graphics, sound and video.
On the Web, documents are generally created in HTML. HTML describes the layout, contents and hyperlinks of the documents and pages. Each HTML document supports embedded hyperlinks that reference other locations (folder, FTP site, other HTML documents, etc.) allowing the client computer to jump to another location when the user selects a hyperlink by clicking on the hyperlink or pressing an appropriate keystroke.
HTML allows, by example, to embed graphical images in HTML documents. For embedding a digital image in an HTML document, the dimensions of the embedded digital image can be specified with HTML statements. For example, an embedded graphical image may be defined in HTML by:                <IMG SRC=“image_file.gif” WIDTH=X HEIGHT=Y>where:        IMG is an HTML tag that references an embedded image,        SRC=“image_file.gif” specifies the path and the name of the file comprising the digital image embedded in the HTML document, (e.g., a Graphics Information file or *.GIF), and        X,Y are the width and height, respectively, of the digital image measured in pixels.        When browsing, Web clients convert user specified commands into HTTP GET requests, connect to the appropriate Web server to get information, and wait for a response.        
The response from the server can be the requested document or an error message. After the document or an error message is returned, the connection between the Web client and the Web server is closed.
After receipt, the Web client formats and presents the data. To present the data, the Web client can activate an ancillary application such as a sound player according to the various types of data received. The Web Client is also referred to as the Web Browser, since it browses documents retrieved from the Web Server.
Interactive electronic services, video-on-demand, and the World Wide Web are providing access to an increasing offering of movies, shopping information, games, multimedia documents, electronic commerce and. many other services. During these last years, due mainly to the general use of personal computers and the capability of millions of users to access the World Wide Web, “multimedia publishing” has veritably exploded. Due to the widespread penetration of CD-ROM drives, an enormous number of multimedia works combining text, images and sounds, are now accessible to owners of personal computers. Furthermore, a vast choice of hypermedia information is today accessible via the Internet on the World Wide Web.
A major problem in using these multimedia systems is to browse the enormous diversity and quantity of information, to discover what is available, and to make a selection among all the possible choices. For instance, when surfing on the Web, a conventional method of navigating across the pages of hypertext documents consists in using search tools or invoking bookmarked links. When surfing on video-on-demand services, a conventional navigation method is to pass from channel to channel. Advertisements on preview channels are used as entry points to various movies. Users can navigate and make selections using hierarchical menus. Obviously, these navigating means do not enable a simple user to access and browse the thousands of multimedia documents that are available on the Web or interactive TV.
For all kind of reasons, people more and more often want to be rapidly and easily informed about their environment. They need to have information about the resources or services located in different regions of the world, in rural, industrial or urban areas. This common need was already identified a long time ago by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) providers, cartographic information providers and, more recently, by many Internet information providers.
These institutions and many others (e.g.: travel agencies, government agencies, local authorities, etc.) today provide geographic and cartographic information in the Web by means of various services. Basically, these services enable the user to access, browse or download many different types of digitized maps covering practically all regions of the world. Recently, due mainly to the widespread use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and in-vehicle computerized navigation systems, and due to the capability of millions of users to access the World Wide Web, “digital map publishing” has veritably exploded. Due to the widespread use of CD-ROMs, a large number of geographic maps are now available to owners of personal computers. Because Internet users can access GIS (Geographic Information System) applications from their browsers without purchasing proprietary GIS software, WebGIS has the potential to make Distributed Geographic Information (DGI) available to a very large worldwide audience. Due to this rapid evolution, a vast choice of geographic and cartographic information is today accessible by means of Internet, and more particularly by means of the World Wide Web. Furthermore, WebGIS allows to use the functionality of the many GIS applications with a wide range of network-based applications in the field of business, administration, or education.
On the other hand, people are used to browsing through paper catalogs, magazines, newspapers, and books by flipping through the pages and glancing at pictures and text. Even if the enthusiasm of the public for new computer-based multimedia services can be considered as a threat to the conventional forms of hard-copied publishing, particularly book publishing, the reality is that reading a book cannot be compared with reading electronic media. Even when many electronic systems attempt to replace paper by providing many advantages such as, for example, a better access to multimedia services, reading paper remains today preferable for most people, whether they are familiar with computers or not.
A Publication entitled “The Last Book”, (IBM Systems Journal, Vol 36, No. 3 Vol 36, No. 3-1997, by J. Jacobson, et al.), clearly illustrates the differences between printed books and computer screens in the following terms:                “A book represents a fundamentally different entity than a computer screen in that it is a physical embodiment of a large number of simultaneous high-resolution displays. When we turn the page, we do not lose the previous page. Through evolution the brain has developed a highly sophisticated spatial map. Persons familiar with a manual or textbook can find information that they are seeking with high specificity, as evidenced by their ability to remember whether something that was seen only briefly was on the right side or left side of a page, for instance. Furthermore their haptic connection with the brain's spatial map comprises a highly natural and effective interface, when such information is embodied on actual multiple physical pages.        Another aspect of embodying information on multiple, simultaneous pages is that of serendipity and comparison. We may leaf through a large volume of text and graphics, inserting a finger bookmark into those areas of greatest interest. Similarly, we may assemble a large body of similar matter in order to view elements in contrast to one another, such as might be done to determine which of a particular set of graphical designs is most satisfying”.        
So even if the enthusiasm of the public for computer-based digital technology might be seen as a threat to conventional paper documents, in reality the use of physical documents remains preferable to most people, whether they are skilled or not in using computers.
Nevertheless, physical documents lack the many advantages provided by today's computer technology. Thus, there is a need for new ways to enhance the usefulness of physical documents by providing the documents the advantages of computer-based technology.
To make additional information directly accessible from printed publications, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/841,930, entitled “Method and system for accessing interactive multimedia information or services by touching highlighted items on physical documents” discloses a system and method for selecting and accessing multimedia information and/or services located on a user workstation (or on one or a plurality of servers connected to a communication network) simply by touching with a finger, items (words, letters, symbols, pictures, icons, . . . ) that are electronically illuminated over the surface of a hard-copy document (or any other physical surface) by means of an opto-touch foil. The referenced system includes: an opto-touch foil preferably transparent, placed by the user over (or under) the document (or a portion of the document). This opto-touch foil is used: to illuminate and highlight hyperlinked items over the surface of the physical document (or portion of this document), and to read coordinates of these hyperlinked items, an user workstation for accessing and displaying the information and/or the service associated with the hyperlinked items.
The hyperlinked items are identified by means of a luminous signal (or light spot) generated by the opto-touch foil. The opto-touch foil operates under the control of the user workstation. Illuminated items are selected by pressing the opto-touch foil. When the user selects an item among all illuminated items, the user workstation receives from the opto-touch foil a signal indicating the position of this selected item. The user workstation identifies and locates referring to a hyperlink table the information and/or the service associated with the position of the selected item. If the information and/or service is located in a remote server, a request is sent to this server. If the information and/or the service is stored in the user workstation, then this information and/or service is accessed locally.
Using the same opto-touch foil, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/892,399, entitled “System and method for locating on a physical document items referenced in a electronic document”, discloses a method and system for using the same opto-touch foil for locating on a physical document items referenced in an electronic document. In an illustrative embodiment, this invention enables to highlight on a paper map the geographic position of places referenced in a Web page.
Also, using opto-touch foils, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/923,150, entitled: “System and method for locating on a physical document items referenced in another physical document”, discloses a method and system for creating hyperlinks from items (e.g. words, pictures, foot notes, symbols, icons) on a first physical document to particular points on a second physical document (manuscript or printed document), for activating these hyperlinks simply by touching the first document, and for highlighting, by means of a light emitting source, the position of the items on the second document. In an illustrative embodiment, the invention enables to highlight on a hard-copy map the geographic positions of places referenced in a hard-copy document.
None of the methods described in the prior art discloses a method or system that would enable a user, simply by touching with a fingertip, an item (i.e., word, icon, figure, foot note, etc.) printed on a physical (i.e., hard-copy) document, to highlight the position of this item (or the location of the information related to this items) on an electronic document.
Generally, there is a real need to provide new systems and methods for enriching the static information comprised in conventional paper documents.
There is a need, using items printed on a physical document, to create hyperlinks with electronically stored documents and to automatically identify and locate the, position of the hyperlinked items on the electronic documents.
In particular, there is a need to provide mobile users with additional information directly accessible from hard-copy documents and more particularly to illuminate on digital maps, places referenced on hard-copy documents.
It is an object of the invention to combine the advantages of searching and browsing textual information on hard-copy documents with the advantages of displaying graphic elements on electronic documents accessed and retrieved on a network.
It is another object of the present invention to highlight on a digital (electronic) document, information related to items selected in a physical document (or more generally on a physical surface).
It is a further object of the present invention to enable a user, when browsing a printed document comprising references to locations in the world (e.g., names of towns, oil posts, motels, buildings, hospitals, monuments, etc.), to receive and display a digital map and to show the position of the locations illuminated over the digital map, even when the locations are not initially represented on it.